Mother's Day by Patricia MacDonald

dining room. “Who’s coming?” she asked, looking at the perfectly set table.
    “Bill and his wife, and their two kids, Tiffany and Mark.”
    Linda shook her head wonderingly. “Bill has two kids? Who did he marry?”
    “He married Glenda Perkins.”
    “His high school girlfriend?” Linda asked. “I’m surprised. I didn’t think that was a big romance.”
    “Well, they got back together when Bill came home. He had to quit college after you left. Your father became too depressed to work. Bill came back and got a job at Shane’s Sporting Goods so he could help us out. He stayed on there. He’s the manager now.” The accusation in Alice’s tone was strictly intentional, but Linda did not seem to notice.
    “He always liked sports,” said Linda vaguely.
    “Liked them! He planned to play pro football after college. ’Course he wasn’t able to finish school, so…” Alice could see that her words were not getting through to Linda. Her mind seemed to have wandered off. “Anyway,” she continued, “Glenda’s a wonderful wife to him, and she’s been like a daughter to me.”
    “I’m glad,” said Linda.
    “Don’t tell me you’re glad,” Alice erupted. “How dare you just waltz in here like this? Why in the world did you run off and leave us like that, without a note, or a word? Weren’t we good parents to you? No one could have loved you more than we did.”
    Linda sat down on a shabby, plaid easy chair and gazed at her mother’s indignant countenance. “Mom, I was ashamed and confused. I didn’t want you to know about it.”
    “Ashamed of what?” Alice asked warily.
    “When I left, when I decided to leave, I was pregnant.”
    Alice flinched at the word. “Oh, Lord.”
    “You see what I mean? You and Dad were always so strict. You were always bragging about my grades and all. You would have been so humiliated.”
    Alice recovered herself. “Well, my goodness, Linda. Of course we wouldn’t have been happy about it…”
    “Worse than that,” Linda muttered. “I couldn’t tell you.”
    “We could have helped you,” Alice cried. “Or what about the boy? Surely he cared about you.”
    “He wasn’t about to marry me.”
    “But running off like that. It made everything so much worse than it had to be.”
    “I was a kid, Mom. All right? I didn’t know what to do. I did the only thing I could think of. I guess I figured you would disown me anyway.”
    Alice sighed. She suddenly felt exhausted. All those lost years. And it could have been so easily avoided. What was the use of arguing now. It was too late to change the past. She sneaked a glance at her grown daughter. In spite of everything, the sight of her was like balm on a wound. She was still beautiful. Alice forced herself to concentrate on what Linda had told her. Pregnant at seventeen. Some boy had taken advantage of her innocence. Despite all their warnings and trying to teach her the right way. Then another thought occurred to her. She was almost afraid to ask.
    “What about the baby?” she said. “What happened to the child? You didn’t…”
    “No, I didn’t have an abortion. I had the baby. A girl. I gave her up for adoption.”
    “Oh, God,” said Alice miserably.
    “Well, what else could I do? I couldn’t very well raise her myself. I didn’t even have a high school diploma then.”
    “If only you had told us,” Alice lamented, shaking her head.
    Linda studied her mother gravely, as if weighing her next words. At last she said, “Mother, there were circumstances Look, I’ve come back here to…let’s say, straighten out a few things from the past. A wrong that was done, if you will. And it’s going to get pretty messy before it’s over. But I promise you, you’ll understand everything in time…”
    “Don’t talk to me in riddles, child. What circumstances? Girls get pregnant every day. Does this have something to do with the father? Was he married or something? I wasn’t born yesterday. I see this